Morozov Nikolai Alexandrovich revolutionary. Nikolay Morozov and an ancient scroll

Nikolai Alexandrovich Morozov, working at the "junctions of sciences", using the facts and methods of various fields of knowledge, became the founder of a systematic approach in science. He is rarely remembered, although the new Chronology of Fomenko and Nosovsky, for example, is based on the legacy of this particular scientist.

Honorary Academician N.A. Morozov is known as an original scientist who left a large number of works in the most diverse fields of natural and social sciences. N.A. Morozov performed works in various fields of astronomy, cosmogony, physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, geophysics, meteorology, aeronautics, aviation, history, philosophy, political economy, and linguistics. He wrote a number of well-known autobiographical, memoir, poetic and other literary works.

The highest intellect and the rebellious spirit of the Russian intelligentsia turned out to be focused in the personality of N.A. Morozov. Next to him you can put, perhaps, only V. I. Vernadsky. Both of them personify the bygone era of scientists - encyclopedists. His style of thinking is somewhat elusive reminiscent of the scientists of the medieval Renaissance. The "Silver Age", which is often written about, is characteristic not only for Russian poetry, art and culture. It can also be seen in science. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, Russia was on the rise. In everything that N.A. Morozov wrote and over what he thought, thought, the steps of tomorrow were heard. In terms of his encyclopedic knowledge, enormous ability to work, productivity and creative potential, N.A. Morozov is an exceptional phenomenon.

Nikolai Aleksandrovich Morozov was born in 1854. At that time, a torch and a candle also served as lighting in the village. He survived the first steps in the development of technology, steam and electricity, and completed his life path in the initial period of the era of atomic energy, the possibility of which he foresaw before most physicists and chemists.

Life among nature from childhood aroused in Nikolai Alexandrovich a passionate interest in natural science. Having received an initial home education, as was customary in noble families, at the age of fifteen he entered the 2nd Moscow Gymnasium. Nikolai Aleksandrovich unites around himself a group of young men like him, striving for knowledge, and organizes a circle called the Society of Natural Science Lovers, at whose weekly meetings scientific abstracts were heard. Members of the circle publish a handwritten journal edited by Nikolai Alexandrovich.

Until 1874, N.A. Morozov led a busy life full of scientific research, deeply studying mathematics and a number of disciplines that were not included in the gymnasium program - astronomy, geology, botany and even anatomy. At the same time, he is also interested in social issues, studying the history of revolutionary movements.

The difficult fate of N.A. Morozov was programmed from the first days of his life. The eternal drama of children born in an unequal marriage. In the case of N.A. Morozov, the noble blood of the father, who was related to Peter the Great, was diluted with the genes of the mother, who came from a serf family. History is replete with numerous examples when highly talented and intelligent people grew up from such children. This is one of the manifestations of the greatness of the nation. At the same time, such examples show their vulnerability to common philistine ideas. The position of the illegitimate and the experiences associated with it made N.A. Morozov think about social injustice and material inequality in society.

In 1874, N.A. Morozov met with some members of the revolutionary circle of "Chaikovites" (S.M. Kravchinsky and others). Their ideals and activities captivate Nikolai Alexandrovich so much that, despite disagreeing with some of their views on the peasant question, he, after being expelled from the gymnasium with a ban on entering any Russian educational institution, embarks on the path of revolutionary struggle.

N.A. Morozov leaves his family and "goes to the people", lives and works in the villages as an assistant to a blacksmith, sawyer of the forest, wanders, doing propaganda among the people, calling them to fight for their liberation. But the ardent young man, who longed for a feat for the sake of lofty ideals, is not satisfied with "going to the people" and the activities that followed in Moscow in workers' circles.

At the suggestion of his comrades, N.A. Morozov moved to Geneva, where he edited the Rabotnik magazine, which was illegally transported to Russia. At the same time, he continues to study natural science, sociology and history.

In the spring of 1875, when crossing the Russian border, he was arrested and imprisoned in the St. Petersburg House of Preliminary Detention. While in prison, he persistently studied foreign languages, algebra, descriptive and analytical geometry, spherical trigonometry and other branches of mathematics.

After three years of imprisonment, in January 1878, N.A. Morozov was released and soon joined the new revolutionary organization "Land and Freedom". He becomes one of the editors of the magazine "Land and Freedom" and the keeper of all illegal documents, money and printing.

As a result of the internal struggle, "Land and Freedom" breaks up into "Narodnaya Volya" and "Black Repartition". N.A. Morozov became a member of the Executive Committee of the party "Narodnaya Volya" and in 1880 emigrated again to publish a magazine abroad called "Russian Social Revolutionary Library". At the same time, he writes The History of the Russian Revolutionary Movement, studies at the University of Geneva, where he listens with particular interest to the lectures of famous naturalists.

N.A. Morozov decides to recruit Karl Marx for cooperation in the journal, for which he travels to London in December 1880, where he meets with him and receives for translation into Russian the "Manifesto of the Communist Party" and a number of other works by K. Marx and F. Engels. According to the promise given to N.A. Morozov, K. Marx and F. Engels wrote a preface to the Russian translation of the Manifesto.

Returning from London to Geneva, Morozov receives a letter from Sofia Perovskaya and hastily goes to Russia to help his comrades in the struggle, but he is arrested at the border. After the assassination of Alexander II, according to the "Trial of 20 Narodnaya Volya", N.A. Morozov was sentenced to life imprisonment without the right to appeal the sentence.

In the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress, the strictest regime prevailed. N.A. Morozov did not have the right to walk, did not receive books, and from poor nutrition he developed scurvy and tuberculosis.

Exceptional will allowed N.A. Morozov to survive these difficult years and, retaining firmness of spirit, to continue his scientific creative work. Two years later, the prisoners of Alekseevsky ravelin were transferred to the Shlisselburg fortress, which had a particularly strict regime. Only after five years of N.A. Morozov's stay in the fortress, after a number of deaths among prisoners, the prison regime was somewhat weakened, and Morozov got the opportunity to read scientific literature and write his own works.

In the Shlisselburg convict prison, he wrote 26 volumes of various manuscripts, which he managed to save and take out when he was released from prison in 1905. In conclusion, N.A. Morozov studied French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Old Slavonic, Ukrainian and Polish.

In the same place, he wrote the memoirs "At the Beginning of Life", published in 1907. Subsequently, they compiled the first part of his memoirs, The Tale of My Life.

In the fortress, he first began to read the Journal of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society. Here he wrote a theoretical essay "The Structure of Matter", which remained unpublished. Other works, in particular "Periodic Systems of the Structure of Matter", were published only after leaving the fortress.

Studies carried out at the end of the 19th century by scientists from various countries showed that both our planetary system and the most distant stellar nebulae consist of the same elements that were found on Earth. Establishing the unity of the chemical composition of world matter was of paramount scientific and philosophical importance.

In 1897, N.A. Morozov informed his relatives from Shlisselburg: “Now I am writing a book on the structure of matter. I have already written almost one and a half thousand pages, and there are no more than five hundred left. yet I have been diligently working on it almost every day for the past three years, and I feel an inexpressible pleasure whenever, after long reflections, calculations, and sometimes sleepless nights, I manage to find order and regularity in such phenomena of nature, which until now seemed mysterious. ."

The inner world of the prisoner "with a dried up body" turned out to be so rich, his self-control was so high that he not only did not die and did not go crazy in the terrible conditions of a long solitary confinement in the "stone tomb" of the Alekseevsky ravelin and the Shlisselburg fortress, but, on the contrary, filled his life of creativity. N.A. Morozov looked forward to each new day, as each new day allowed him to move forward in the development of scientific ideas. Many years later, Morozov will say that he was not in prison, but "in the Universe."

So, not far from St. Petersburg University, where D.I. Mendeleev worked at that time, in the Shlisselburg fortress there was a man who tirelessly thought about the essence of the periodic law, about the theory of the formation of chemical elements. Despite the lack of a systematic chemical education in a higher educational institution, despite the fact that N.A. Morozov did not go through a proper experimental school, thanks to his amazing talents, he mastered the heights of various chemical disciplines and taught chemistry two or three years after his release from the fortress , wrote books on general physical, inorganic, organic and analytical chemistry. D.I. Mendeleev, with whom N.A. Morozov met shortly before his death, spoke with approval of the work "Periodic systems of the structure of matter", and according to his presentation for this work in 1906, N.A. Morozov was awarded, without dissertation defense, Ph.D.

N.A. Morozov was released as a result of the 1905 revolution. He devotes himself entirely to science, begins to prepare for publication his works written in prison. During the same period, he makes many lecture trips throughout Russia. With lectures, he visited 54 cities of the country - from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok. His public lectures on problems of chemistry, aviation, and the history of religions were brilliant and attracted huge audiences. All this frightened the authorities, and they often banned lectures.

The multifaceted scientist had another gift - poetic. He wrote stories, novels, poems. For the poetry collection Star Songs, he was sentenced to a year in prison. In conclusion, he began to write his memoirs "The Tale of My Life", which are distinguished by a tense plot, beautiful language and well-aimed images of contemporaries. These memoirs were highly appreciated by Leo Tolstoy.

In 1907, at the invitation of P.F. Lesgaft, N.A. Morozov began teaching a course in general chemistry at the Higher Free School. A few years later he was elected head of the department of astronomy at the Higher Courses of Lesgaft.

In 1911, at the II Mendeleev Congress, N.A. Morozov made a report on the topic "The past and future of the worlds from the modern geophysical point of view", where he expressed the bold idea that new stars arise as a result of the explosion of old luminaries, which occurs as a result of the decomposition of atoms of matter that have become radioactive. Today, this previously disputed hypothesis, in a slightly modified form, is shared by a wide circle of astronomers and physicists.

NA Morozov was interested in many branches of mathematics - from differential and integral calculus and algebra of complex numbers to vectors and projective geometry, as well as probability theory. His interest in these questions was closely connected with the application of these mathematical disciplines to natural science. From 1908 to 1912, he published three major works on mathematics: "The beginnings of vectorial algebra in their genesis from pure mathematics", "Fundamentals of qualitative physical and mathematical analysis" and "A visual presentation of differential and integral calculus".

The most complete original and original ideas of N.A. Morozov in the field of astronomy are presented in his work "The Universe". In a new way, he considers questions about universal gravitation, about the origin and evolution of the solar system, about star clusters, about the structure of the Milky turbidity. N.A. Morozov worked a lot on questions of the theory of relativity. His remarkable ideas also include the hypothesis of the relationship and periodicity of astrophysical and astrochemical phenomena. For a long time he worked on the fundamental work "Theoretical Foundations of Geophysics and Meteorology", in which he showed that the influence of the Galaxy on the meteorological and geophysical processes of the Earth is natural and so great that without introducing it into calculations one cannot even dream of scientific weather prediction.

N.A. Morozov showed great interest in aviation and aeronautics. He became one of the pioneers of scientific aeronautics in Russia, received the title of pilot, was chairman of the commission for scientific flights, lectured at an aviation school, flew the first balloons himself more than once, proposed an automatic parachute system, as well as special suits for high-altitude flights (the prototype modern clothing for pilots and astronauts).

During the First World War, in 1915, N.A. Morozov went to the front and here, at the forefront, as a delegate of the All-Russian Zemstvo Union, he actively assisted the sick and wounded. He reflected his memories and thoughts about the war in the book "At War", published in 1916.

After the October Revolution, N.A. Morozov transformed the Lesgaft Higher Courses into the Natural Science Institute named after P.F. Lesgaft and became its elected director. At the same time, N.A. Morozov was in charge of the astronomical department of the institute and created an observatory in which he himself worked.

Since 1918, N.A. Morozov has been working with enthusiasm for many years on the great fundamental work "History of Human Culture in the Natural Science Illumination". Part of this great work in the form of seven volumes was published under the title "Christ" (edition 1924-1932). The three later volumes of the manuscript remained unprinted.

The name "Christ" proposed by the publisher does not fully correspond to the content of this work. In the preface to the 7th volume, N.A. Morozov wrote: "The main task of this great work of mine was: to harmonize the historical sciences with natural science and to discover the general laws of the mental development of mankind." The version of the chronology of ancient history accepted today was created in the period of the XIV-XVI centuries and finally completed, in general terms, by medieval historians-chronologists I. Scaliger (1540-1609) and D. Petavius ​​(1583-1652). Morozov was the first to understand that both ancient and medieval events needed to be re-dated. Based on the analysis of a huge amount of factual material, having rechecked many historical documents using mathematical, linguistic and astronomical methods, N.A. Morozov put forward and partially substantiated the fundamental hypothesis that the Scaligerian chronology is artificially extended, lengthened compared to reality. He pointed to ancient texts that probably describe the same events, but then dated from different eras. Morozov pointed out that since the ancient texts were repeatedly copied and, as a rule, modified, they could deviate quite far from the original text. At that time, there was no such branch of science as mathematical linguistics. N.A. Morozov suggested establishing the authorship of texts and detecting plagiarism by the statistical distribution of function words. In this regard, Morozov should be considered one of the forerunners of mathematical methods in linguistics.

Listing the works of N.A. Morozov, one cannot fail to mention his historical study on alchemy "In Search of the Philosopher's Stone". This book was accepted by readers with great interest, it is still one of the most fascinating works on the alchemical period in the development of chemistry. As you know, N.A. Morozov always sought to study history from primary sources. Starting to write this book, he subjected to a critical analysis of historical manuscripts, covering the most important facts from the development of chemistry. Here is how he evaluates many historical documents that he had to use: "Everything that we know about the writings of ancient authors is taken almost entirely by modern historians from collections of the 15th - 17th centuries, i.e. from persons who lived a whole thousand years after the death of those quoted they are writers, from persons of the highest degree of credulity, dotted with their reports with incredible stories about all kinds of miracles.It is almost impossible to distinguish the truth from plausible fabrications and later additions in them.Thanks to this circumstance, all our primary sources for the ancient period of the pre-printing era are real Augean stables ", for the purification of which a new Hercules is needed. But even Hercules alone could not do anything here. Here, a special international society is needed to develop the primary sources of ancient history."

However, the methodology of research by N.A. Morozov of the history of mankind, his historical concept, turned out to be so revolutionary that it was not recognized by official historical science. The facts given by the scientist are considered to be largely misinterpreted by him. At present, research according to the new chronology is continued not by historians, but by scientists from other fields of knowledge - mathematics, physics (in particular: M.M. Postnikov, A.T. Fomenko, G.V. Nosovsky, S.I. Valyansky, D. V. Kalyuzhny and others).

While still in prison, N.A. Morozov develops the idea of ​​the complex structure of atoms and this substantiates the essence of the periodic law of chemical elements. He passionately defends the proposal about the possibility of the decomposition of the atom, which at that time seemed unconvincing to most physicists and chemists, since. there was not yet sufficient experimental evidence for this assertion.

N.A. Morozov also expresses the idea that the main task of the chemistry of the future is the synthesis of elements.

Developing the idea of ​​J. Dumas, N.A. Morozov proposed a periodic system of hydrocarbons - "carbohydrides", by analogy with the periodic table - "in order of increasing share weight", and built tables reflecting the periodic dependence of a number of properties of aliphatic and cyclic radicals on molecular weight.

N.A. Morozov suggested that chemically neutral elements should exist among atoms. A number of atomic weights of elements of the zero and first groups calculated by N.A. Morozov coincided with the atomic weights of the corresponding isotopes determined many years later. A deep analysis of the properties of the elements of the zero and eighth groups of the periodic system of Mendeleev led N.A. Morozov to the idea of ​​the need to combine them into one zero type, which was also justified by subsequent works. "Thus, - wrote the famous chemist Professor L.A. Chugaev, - N.A. Morozov could predict the existence of the zero group 10 years before it was actually discovered. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond his control, this prediction did not could have been published then and appeared in print much later.

Striking and indisputable is the fact that more than 100 years ago, N.A. Morozov boldly and confidently accepted the point of view of the complex structure of atoms, the convertibility of elements, allowing the possibility of artificial production of radioactive elements, recognizing the extraordinary reserves of intra-atomic energy.

According to Academician I.V. Kurchatov, "modern physics has fully confirmed the assertion about the complex structure of atoms and the interconvertibility of all chemical elements, analyzed at the time by N.A. Morozov in the monograph "Periodic Systems of the Structure of Matter."

The results of research in the last decades of the 20th century mark the beginning of a true triumph of the once misunderstood ideas of V.I. Vernadsky, N.A. Morozov, K.E. Tsiolkovsky, A.L. Chizhevsky.

N.A. Morozov from 1918 until the end of his life was the director of the Natural Science Institute. P.F. Lesgaft, distinguished by the diversity of research in various fields of knowledge, as evidenced by the Proceedings of the Institute published since 1919 under the editorship of N.A. Morozov. It was at this institute that, on the initiative of the scientist, the development of a number of problems related to space exploration began.

The principle of integrated research was embodied not only in the institute he led, but also in the work of the scientific center, created in 1939 on his initiative in the village of Borok, Yaroslavl Region, where the Institute of Biology of Inland Waters and the Geophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences now operate.

The Soviet government awarded Nikolai Aleksandrovich Morozov two Orders of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. A museum has been organized in the house where the honorary academician N.A. Morozov lived and worked. A village in the Leningrad Region, not far from the Shlisselburg Fortress, was named after him. Astronomers named a small asteroid planet after him. "Morozoviya" entered all the star catalogs of the world. One of the craters on the far side of the Moon (5" N, 127" E) is also named after N.A. Morozov.

The constant desire of N.A. Morozov to work at the "junctions of sciences", using the facts and methods of various fields of knowledge, brings him close to a systematic scientific approach (which is now one of the leading methods in science) in the study of phenomena in their diverse and often unexpected relationships , uniting completely heterogeneous, it would seem, phenomena and processes. The range of interests of the scientist extended from chemical elements to the essence of life; from the emergence of stars as a result of the explosion of cosmic bodies to the formation of clouds; from vector calculus to relativity theory; from the processes taking place in the center of the globe to aeronautics; from ancient and medieval history to the results of science at the beginning of the 20th century. N.A. Morozov believed that in the future all separate knowledge would unite into one common natural science, merge into a mighty stream of united knowledge, and become a common natural philosophy of the future.]]>

An essay on the life and work of N.A. Morozov "I was sitting in the Universe ...", written by Yu.I. Chubukova, Candidate of Historical Sciences, was published in No. “Why, having first become a revolutionary, N.A. Morozov became a scientist in the tsarist prison? - the author asks a question and then sequentially sets out the chronology of the life of the great scientist in the chapters "He dreamed of becoming a scientist since childhood", "Morozov did not shoot at Alexander II", "Letters from the Shlisselburg fortress", "The fate of the scientific works of N.A. Morozov", "Borok".

Without going into details, we will try to briefly describe the life path of the great Russian scientist-encyclopedist, the first and last pages of whose fate are connected with the Yaroslavl region. At the same time, we will supplement his biography with information that is not in the essay by Yu.I. Chubukova.

N.A.Morozov (8.07.1854–30.07.1946) was born in the Borok estate of the Mologsky district of the Yaroslavl province, which belonged to the ancient noble family of the Shchepochkins. There is an assumption (Yu.I. Chubukova does not give it, but it is mentioned in the works of A.T. Fomenko and G.V. Nosovsky, which will be discussed below), the great-grandfather of N.A. Morozov was related to Peter I. However this high kinship did not prevent the father of the future scientist, Pyotr Alekseevich Shchepochkin, without consolidating the marriage in the church, from marrying a serf from his Novgorod possession, Anna Vasilievna Plaksina. Giving her freedom, under the name "Morozova" he attributed her to the bourgeoisie of the city of Mologa. N.A. Morozov, who received his mother’s surname and patronymic of his godfather, the Mologa landowner A.I.

During one of his anniversaries, celebrated in Borka, Morozov brought guests to the place of his birth and said: “There were baths here, and these lindens were in the place of ponds. My mother gave birth to me in a bathhouse. With her was not only a doctor, but also a simple village midwife. She managed herself, here in the pond and washed me ... And now, nothing, came out no worse than the others.

The story looks amusing, but raises doubts about its authenticity - everything suggests that Morozov's father truly loved his chosen one, was engaged in her education a lot, which was greatly facilitated by the presence of a rich library in the estate. “From my youth, I was also very fond of the sciences,” N.A. Morozov wrote in 1926 in his autobiography. “Having found two courses in astronomy in my father’s library, I became very interested in this subject and read both books, although I did not understand their mathematical part.”

In 1869 he entered the Moscow classical gymnasium, at the same time he became a volunteer at Moscow University.

It can be assumed that the "illegal" origin and the books on astronomy read in childhood determined both Morozov's democratic convictions and his scientific interests.

For these same democratic convictions, he was expelled from the Moscow classical gymnasium after five years without the right to enter higher educational institutions in Russia. About how he imagined his future, he wrote in his autobiography: “I dreamed all the time of becoming either a doctor, or a research scientist who opens up new horizons in science, or a great traveler, exploring with danger to his life the then unknown countries of the central Africa, inland Australia, Tibet and the polar countries, and seriously prepared for the last intention, rereading all the travels that I could get my hands on.

Perhaps, by denying Morozov the right to continue and improve his education, the tsarist authorities themselves pushed him onto the path of a revolutionary. So he became a member of the Chaikovsky circle, met a prominent revolutionary and writer S.M.

“Isn't it good to die for truth and justice?.. Is it possible to engage in science under the surrounding conditions without becoming a man, a callous soul? After all, nature will not want to reveal its secrets to a callous person, ”morozov himself explained his departure from science into the revolution.

In 1874, he left for the Potapovo estate in the Danilovsky district of the Yaroslavl province, where, having settled down as an apprentice to a local blacksmith, he began to conduct propaganda activities in the neighboring village of Koptevo. When the arrests of propagandists began, he emigrated abroad, collaborated in M.A. Bakunin’s magazine “Worker”. After returning to Russia, he was immediately arrested, but a year in prison only strengthened his revolutionary convictions. Having joined the organization "Land and Freedom", he became one of the editors of the magazine of the same name, and later edited the printed organ of the executive committee of "Narodnaya Volya". In 1880, Morozov again found himself abroad, met Karl Marx in London, and was arrested again on his way back to Russia. The assassination attempt on Alexander II by Narodnaya Volya, in which Morozov did not take part, played a pivotal, tragic role in his fate - among other "most dangerous criminals" he was sentenced to solitary life imprisonment. The severity of the punishment was due to the fact that Morozov took part in one of the previous assassination attempts on Alexander II, (there were seven such attempts in total), when the Narodnaya Volya dig under the railway.

First, in the Peter and Paul Fortress, and then in the Shlisselburg Fortress, he spent a total of 28 years, and was released only in 1905, after the first Russian revolution.

Many would not have withstood such a severe punishment and would have broken in spirit, however, even here Morozov managed to maintain willpower and clarity of mind, and when asked how he did it, he answered: “I did not sit in a fortress, I sat in the Universe.” At the same time, Morozov did not just serve his sentence, but intensively and daily studied chemistry, physics, astronomy, meteorology, mathematics, history, philosophy, and political economy in a cold solitary confinement cell. 26 volumes of manuscripts were written by him during these years!

Only when he was released, he immediately actively involved in scientific and scientific-pedagogical work - he taught chemistry and astronomy at the St. Petersburg Higher Free School of P.F. Lesgaft - a teacher, anatomist and doctor, creator of the scientific system of physical education.

In 1906, for the work "Periodic systems of the structure of matter", Morozov, on the proposal of D.I. Mendeleev, was awarded the degree of Doctor of Chemistry. He is elected a member of the Russian, French and British Astronomical Societies and the Russian Physico-Chemical Society, is elected chairman of the Russian Society of Lovers of the World.

It would seem that at that time Morozov completely went into science, but his political convictions continue to make themselves felt - in 1912, for the collection of poems "Star Songs" published in Moscow, he was imprisoned in the Dvina fortress, where he spends a year. This page of his biography is rarely remembered today - it is one thing, the "fair" tsarist government imprisoned for terrorism, and another for poetry.

After the October Revolution, Morozov was appointed director of the Natural Science Institute. P.F. Lesgaft. With the support of a group of enthusiasts, he is engaged in research in the field of natural sciences, in 1922 he becomes an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This period of Morozov's life is described in the essay by Yu.I. Chubukova:

“In the early 1920s, legal scholars, economists, philosophers, statisticians, leading experts in the field of finance, cooperation, etc. were expelled from Russia. Persecution against physicists, biologists, geneticists, mathematicians continued until the 50s years. Hundreds of veterans of the revolutionary movement were repressed, in 1935 the All-Union Society of Former Political Prisoners and Exiled Settlers was crushed. It seemed that in these most severe conditions of general terror, the next blow would be dealt to the patriarch of the revolutionary movement in Russia, N.A. Morozov. But I.V. Stalin did not touch him, and unexpectedly for many, including the scientist himself, awarded him the Order of Lenin. It is difficult to say what was behind this: a whim, a whim of a dictator who banished the theme of revolutionary populism from historical science, or recognition of the merits of a revolutionary scientist?

It turns out that Morozov was almost the only scientist who was not affected by Stalin's repressions. However, this was not the case, although Morozov's fate is indeed unique in many respects.

In the reference book of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR published in 1945, it is said about him:

“Known for his work in the field of astronomical, meteorological, physical and chemical problems. Honored Worker of Science of the RSFSR. Honorary Member of the Moscow Society of Naturalists. Permanent member of the French Astronomical Society. Permanent Member of the British Astronomical Society. Let's add: having studied 11 languages ​​in the conclusion.

In total, in 1945, there were only three honorary academicians of the USSR Academy of Sciences: microbiologist N.F. Gamaleya, N.A. Morozov and I.V. Stalin. Perhaps the latter circumstance also played a role in the fact that the scientist escaped persecution. However, one must also take into account the fact that until the end of his days Morozov remained a convinced revolutionary and wrote in all questionnaires: "Member of the People's Will Party." In the Morozov house-museum in Bork, next to the portraits of Kibalchich, Tsiolkovsky, Schmidt, there are portraits of Karl Marx, Lenin, Sofya Perovskaya and Vera Figner - just as they were during the life of the scientist. This fidelity to revolutionary convictions will be remembered to him in our day.

A special place among the numerous studies of N.A. Morozov is occupied by works devoted to the criticism of the so-called Scaligerian chronology.

Joseph Scaliger (1540-1609) set out the chronology of ancient and medieval history in the form that is considered generally accepted today. However, despite the fact that he is called "the founder of the modern chronology of science", such prominent scientists as I. Newton and E. Johnson did not agree with him. The well-known chronologist E. Bickerman wrote: “There is no sufficiently complete research on ancient chronology that meets modern requirements.”

In our time, the Scaligerian theory is criticized in the books of A.T.Fomenko and G.V.Nosovsky, who call it nothing more than the Scaligerian version. However, in Russia, N.A. Morozov became the discoverer of this topic. This is unconditionally recognized by the above-mentioned modern critics of the Scaligerian theory A.T.Fomenko and G.V.Nosovsky. Here is what they write in particular:

“In 1907, N.A. Morozov published the book “Revelation in Thunderstorm and Storm”, where he analyzed the dating of the “Apocalypse” and came to conclusions that contradict the Scaligerian chronology. In 1914, he published the book "Prophets", in which, on the basis of astronomical dating methods, the Scaligerian dating of biblical prophecies was radically revised. In 1924-1932, N.A. Morozov published the fundamental seven-volume work "Christ". The original title of this work was "History of human culture in the light of natural science." In it, N.A. Morozov outlined a detailed criticism of the Scaligerian chronology. An important fact discovered by him is the groundlessness of the concept underlying the Scaligerian chronology accepted today.

After analyzing the huge material, N.A. Morozov put forward and partially substantiated the fundamental hypothesis that the Scaligerian chronology of antiquity is artificially extended, lengthened compared to reality. This hypothesis of N.A. Morozov is based on the “repetitions” he discovered, that is, texts that probably describe the same events, but then dated in different years and are considered different today. The publication of this work caused a lively controversy in the press, the echoes of which are present in modern literature. Some justified objections were raised, but on the whole the critical part of the work "Christ" could not be challenged.

Apparently, N.A. Morozov did not know about similar works by I. Newton and E. Johnson, which were practically forgotten by his time. It is all the more surprising that many of the conclusions of N.A. Morozov are in good agreement with the statements of I. Newton and E. Johnson. But N.A. Morozov raised the issue much broader and deeper, spreading critical analysis up to the 6th century AD. and found here, too, the need for radical adaptations. Despite the fact that N.A. Morozov also failed to identify any system in the chaos of these redattributions, his research is at a qualitatively higher level than the analysis of I. Newton. N.A. Morozov was the first scientist who realized that not only the events of ancient, but also medieval history needed to be re-dated. Nevertheless, N.A. Morozov did not go higher than the 6th century AD, believing that the version of chronology adopted today is more or less correct.”

A.T.Fomenko and G.V.Nosovsky really went further than N.A.Morozov, in particular, "shoveled" the entire ancient Russian history, bringing it much closer to the present. But this is a topic for a separate discussion, let's return to the new chronology of Nikolai Morozov, which seems to us more reasonable.

P. Kulikov from St. Petersburg posted the text of the book "Revelations in Thunderstorm and Storm" on the Internet, providing it with the following introduction (given in abbreviated form):

“This is one of the many translations of the Apocalypse, and perhaps the most reasonable one. N. Morozov suggested that John's visions are nothing more than an allegorical description of constellations, clouds, sea waves, etc., and the Apocalypse itself is nothing more than a horoscope drawn up on one specific day. Nikolai Morozov calculated this day - September 30, 395 (Julian calendar), for which he used 9 astronomical and one historical arguments.

The nine astronomical arguments are the positions of the Sun, Moon and constellations at the time of writing the Apocalypse. The historical argument is the correspondence of the content of the Apocalypse to the realities of Byzantium on the verge of the 4th-5th centuries, about which only John Chrysostom could write in such detail. “The historical argument, of course, is not worth a damn in itself, but the evidence complex of 9 astronomical arguments seems irrefutable to me, a person far from astronomy,” writes the author of the publication P. Kulikov, as if continuing the thought of Morozov himself, who in the preface to the book, he wrote that the main thing in it is the establishment of the year of writing the Apocalypse by astronomical methods, and “small details that can be argued about are completely indifferent to me: I am ready to throw them away at the first serious objection, and the book will not suffer from this at all” .

“Here it should be noted,” P. Kulikov writes further, “that in the book under consideration, N. Morozov still in no way questions the traditional scale of historical time, but only dates one specific literary fact within this scale. Religious criticism is simple and convincing - for example, Alexander Men called N. Morozov crazy, and on this he considered the topic settled. Scientific criticism gives more food for thought, but it immediately dissipates and starts to fight with the entire “new chronology” as a whole, without delving into the topic of 395… There were some discussions on this topic on the Internet, but not very deep.”

Such “not very deep” discussions include the article “Christianity and the “new chronology”” published on the Internet by G. A. Eliseev, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University. The article was published in the collection “So it turned out!”, Dedicated to the criticism of the “new chronology” by A.T. Fomenko (Publishing house “ANVIK K”, Moscow, 2001).

Here are some excerpts from this article, written in a clearly unfriendly tone:

“In his books (“Revelation in Thunderstorm and Storm”, “Christ”), Morozov perceived the gospel texts as encrypted descriptions of astronomical phenomena. All the events set forth in the New Testament, he interpreted allegorically. As a true prototype of Christ, Morozov called St. Basil the Great. Moreover, the name Vasily is perceived by the author as a distortion of the title "great king". This "great king", from Morozov's point of view, was the prototype of the founders of other well-known religions (Buddha, Mohammed, etc.) ...

If you take a closer look at Morozov's biography, one cannot help but note his penchant for mystical experiences, and in general, unformed pantheistic religiosity. He himself recalled this in his memoirs: “Love for nature was innate in me. The sight of the starry sky at night aroused in me some kind of enthusiastic state. Morozov also had real visions, described by him at the beginning of the book “Revelation in Thunderstorm and Storm”. (They are very reminiscent of the visions of K.E. Tsiolkovsky, a mystic and follower of N.F. Fedorov, who was at the same time a friend of N.A. Morozov.) ...

Among his friends were also occultists, and people who dreamed of creating "new religions". We have already mentioned Tsiolkovsky. Morozov was also well acquainted with the poet and mystic V.Ya. Bryusov, F.E. Dzerzhinsky and A.V. Lunacharsky contributed to the printing of his books. The first supported secret expeditions of occultists to the north of Russia, the second at the beginning of the 20th century tried to create a “new religion” for a “new society”. He was very interested in the works of Nikolai Aleksandrovich and V.D. Bonch-Bruevich supported his research ...

Occult ideas were also close to Morozov. According to his theory, Christian civilization owes its origin and development to a society of initiates who are well acquainted with astrology. The initiates created the sacred writings of world religions, perceived by the "profane" as a story about real historical events. Morozov in his books… nevertheless remained a son of his time and, despite his interest in the occult, he was also guided by another subconscious conviction, shared by the mass of intellectuals of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who adhered to “leftist views”…

The views of N.A. Morozov fully coincide with this public desire - to destroy the old world, to crush all the foundations on which it existed. The radical atheism of the Bolsheviks, which eventually degenerated into a kind of "pseudo-religion", all focused on endless rituals, was also an attempt to destroy the spiritual foundations of the old society. Morozov's theory arose from even deeper motives. He, apparently, subconsciously believed that the “new man of the new world” would also need a “new history”, which had nothing to do with the history of the “old” ...

During the “perestroika”, huge masses of people were almost obsessed with the vision of the “new ideal world”, which was presented by the modern Western countries. The radical reshaping of Soviet society was accompanied by a frankly utopian expectation of quick and undeniably positive results. Of course, this did not happen in reality. However, subconscious public mindsets change much more slowly than public consciousness. The utopian view of the world that had been nurtured in Soviet people for decades could not simply disappear. It exists, albeit in a weakened form.

It can be said that instead of a scientific discussion, the author of the article “Christianity and the “New Chronology”” began to collect “compromising evidence” on N.A. Morozov, which at another time and in other conditions would have been enough to severely punish the scientist for dissent. Unfortunately, G.A.Eliseev is not alone in this, and the blows are inflicted by both religious and scientific figures. Let us remember the priest Alexander Men, who declared Morozov crazy. No more restrained in their emotions are those scientists who consider the Scaligerian theory inviolable. Under the new “democratic” conditions, Morozov is even charged with the fact that he was a revolutionary, met with Marx and corresponded with Lenin, and Stalin did not send him to the Gulag camps.

“N.A. Morozov combined selfless social, revolutionary service to his native people with an absolutely amazing passion for scientific work. This scientific enthusiasm, completely disinterested, passionate love for scientific research should remain an example and a model for every scientist, young or old,” academician Sergei Ivanovich Vavilov wrote about Morozov in his book Essays and Memoirs.

In 1909, N.A. Morozov’s book “In Search of the Philosopher’s Stone” was published, which at one time was called the most popular book on the history of alchemy. But another mine was laid in it, and under the Scaligerian chronology. Here is what Yu.I. Chubukova wrote about this:

“Using the method of historical criticism, Morozov, having compared all the primary sources available to him - the works of ancient and medieval authors, doubted the ancient origin of the works of Plato, Aristotle, Titus Livy, Tacitus. How could, for example, Pythagoras develop the theory of numbers a thousand years before the Arabs invented the decimal number system, without which there could be no question of any theory of numbers? Or Democritus, who allegedly in the 5th century BC. e. said about atoms the same thing that Lavoisier said about them 2200 years later? Why is ancient Greek poetry interrupted for a thousand years before the Renaissance, and it is replaced by the richest dramaturgy? Is it because, Morozov assumed, that all the so-called ancient authors actually worked in the Renaissance, when it was fashionable to apocryphal lyric and heroic poems in the most ancient centuries; that no ancient manuscripts existed in nature; that the Roman ruins cannot be regarded as irrefutable evidence of ancient Rome, that since 324 the capital of the Great Roman Empire was not Rome, but Constantinople; that the "Iliad", considered an ancient literary monument, was first printed in Milan in 1511 and comes from the "city of Elijah" - that was the name of Palestinian Jerusalem in the Middle Ages.

Modern ill-wishers of N.A. Morozov emphasize that he was “warmed up” by the Soviet authorities. Meanwhile, most of his scientific works came out in the pre-revolutionary period. The exception is the multi-volume work "Christ" (the history of human culture in a natural scientific presentation), the first book of which was published in 1924. However, after the publication of the seventh book, the USSR Academy of Sciences declared his historical concept erroneous, and his works on this topic were no longer mentioned in the press. Thus, Morozov, “warmed by the authorities,” did not escape censorship in the Soviet period, but his ill-wishers prefer to remain silent about this. It is more often remembered that, on the personal instructions of Lenin, in 1923, for life use, the scientist “for services to the revolution and science” was given his family estate Borok, where he, in his own words, lived “the last landowner of Russia”, having an estate manager, a maid , cook, groom.

In 1931, Morozov transferred his two-story house, outbuildings and land around the estate to the Academy of Sciences, leaving behind a one-story wooden house with a mezzanine. It was on the initiative of Morozov that in 1938 the biological station of the Academy of Sciences was created in Bork, which in 1944 was named after him. Here, in Bork, on July 30, 1946, the scientist died and was buried not far from the house where he was born. In 1946, the memorial house-museum of N.A. Morozov was opened in the house. On its facade there is a memorial plaque: “Here he was born, spent his childhood and after 30 years of imprisonment in the tsarist prisons, the honorary academician Nikolai Alexandrovich Morozov, 1854-1946, a revolutionary and scientist, lived and worked.” The number of years spent in prison is rounded off, but the description - a revolutionary and a scientist - correctly reflects the uniqueness of his personality. He was a revolutionary not only in life, but also in science.

This could be put an end to, but in the posthumous fate of Morozov, not everything was as smooth as it might seem. After his death, the biological station "Borok" quickly falls into disrepair. In order to save her, in 1952 the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences appointed the well-known polar explorer, Rear Admiral, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Doctor of Geographical Sciences I.D. Papanin, as its director.

In 1954, the 100th anniversary of N.A. Morozov was celebrated in Bork, a monument was erected on his grave - a bronze scientist sits on a stump with a book in his hands and looks into the distance.

In 1956, the biological station "Borok" was transformed into the Institute of Reservoir Biology, in 1962 it was renamed the Institute of Internal Waters. In 1986, after the death of I.D. Papanin, the Institute was named after him. They decided to donate in the name of Morozov.

Not far from Bork, the Rybinsk Reservoir splashes - a grandiose, but dubious achievement of the revolutionary time, whose faithful son was Nikolai Aleksandrovich Morozov.

The chronology of the earthly life of the great scientist has ended, but the system of denying the ancient world he created and the new chronology he developed still disturb inquisitive minds.

He was sentenced to eternal hard labor, until he was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul and Shlisselburg fortresses. Honorary Academician Nikolai Morozov is also known as an original scientist who left a large number of works in the most diverse fields of natural and social sciences. He is known both as a writer and as a poet. Morozov combined amazing scientific erudition, a wide synthetic coverage of the main areas of knowledge and creative inspiration with an original approach to each topic that interested him. According to encyclopedic knowledge, enormous capacity for work, productivity and creative potential, Nikolai Morozov is an exceptional phenomenon.

Biography

House-Museum of Morozov in Bork.

Nikolai Alexandrovich Morozov was born in 1854 in the family estate of Borok. He survived the first steps in the development of steam and electricity technology, and completed his life path in the initial period of the era of atomic energy, the possibilities of which he foresaw before most physicists and chemists.

Performance evaluation

Assessing the scientific path traversed by Nikolai Morozov, given his lack of a special chemical education and the opportunity to experiment in the laboratory during his youth, one has to wonder how deeply and versatile he mastered the treasures of chemical science, how boldly and creatively he used them, how relatively few mistakes he made. did. Being cut off for almost 30 years from live communication with chemists, having neither teachers nor students, N.A. Morozov, naturally, had to independently, without experiment, without the latest literature, solve the often very difficult problems that arose for him.

In his writings, the sharpness of thought, generalizations and forecasts is striking.

The principle of complex research in science, which N.A. Morozov adhered to all his life, was embodied not only in the institute he led, but is also embodied in the work of the scientific center, created in 1939 on his initiative in the village of Borok, Yaroslavl Region, where now The Borok Geophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences also operates. This scientific center in the homeland of N. A. Morozov is a worthy monument to an outstanding scientist and citizen.

In 1939, at the age of 85, Morozov graduated from the Osoaviakhim sniper course and three years later, on the Volkhov front, he personally participated in hostilities. In July 1944 he was awarded the Order of Lenin.

Proceedings

N. A. Morozov performed works in various fields of astronomy, cosmogony, physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, geophysics and meteorology, aeronautics, aviation, history, philosophy, political economy, and linguistics. He wrote a number of widely known autobiographical, memoir and other literary works.

The works of N. A. Morozov are used by specialists in many fields of knowledge. His name went down in the history of Russian science and culture, in the history of the Russian revolutionary movement.

In one of his poems, N. A. Morozov says: “Only the one whose response is in others did not die - who in this world lived not only a personal life.” These fine words should also be attributed to Morozov himself.

Wrote memoirs - "Tales of my life."

N. A. Morozov - the forerunner of the creators of the "new chronology"

Once in the Peter and Paul Fortress and having no other literature except the Bible, Morozov began to read the Apocalypse and, by his own admission:

... from the very first chapter, I suddenly began to recognize in the apocalyptic beasts half allegorical, and half literally accurate and, moreover, an extremely artistic depiction of thunderstorm pictures long known to me, and besides them, there is also a wonderful description of the constellations of the ancient sky and planets in these constellations. After a few pages, there was no longer any doubt left for me that the true source of this ancient prophecy was one of those earthquakes that are not uncommon even now in the Greek Archipelago, and the thunderstorm that accompanied it and the ominous astrological arrangement of the planets in the constellations, these ancient signs of God's wrath, accepted the author, under the influence of religious enthusiasm, for a sign specially sent by God in response to his ardent pleas to indicate to him at least some hint when Jesus would finally come to earth.

Based on this idea as an obvious fact that does not need proof, Morozov tried to calculate the date of the event according to the alleged astronomical indications in the text and came to the conclusion that the text was written in 395 AD. e. , that is, exactly 300 years later than its traditional dating. For Morozov, however, this was not a sign of the fallacy of his hypothesis, but of tradition. Upon his release from prison, Morozov outlined his conclusions in the book Revelation of Thunderstorm and Storm (). Critics have pointed out that this dating contradicts the undeniable quotations and references to the "Apocalypse" in earlier Christian texts. To this, Morozov objected that, since the dating of the Apocalypse has been proven astronomically, then in this case we are dealing either with forgeries or incorrect dating of contradictory texts that could not have been written earlier than the 5th century BC. At the same time, he firmly believed that his dating was based on accurate astronomical data; critics' indications that these "astronomical data" were arbitrary interpretations of a metaphorical text were ignored by him.

Morozov's ideas were forgotten for a long time and were perceived only as a curiosity in the history of thought, but since the late 1960s. his "Christ" was of interest to the circle of academic intelligentsia (not the humanities, mainly mathematicians, led by M. M. Postnikov), and his ideas were developed in the "New Chronology" by A. T. Fomenko and others (for more details, see History " New Chronology). Interest in the "New Chronology" contributed to the reprinting of Morozov's works and the publication of his works that remained unpublished (three additional volumes of "Christ", published in 1997-2003)

Memory

• In the Leningrad region there is a village named after Morozov
• Minor planet 1210 Morosovia and lunar crater named after Morozov
• In Bork (Yaroslavl region) there is a house-museum of Morozov.

see also

Literature

• Morozov N. A. Tales of my life: Memoirs / Ed. and note. S. Ya. Shtreikh. Afterword B. I. Kozmina. T. 2. - M.: b. i., 1961. - 702 p.: p.
• Morozov N. A. Christ. The history of mankind in natural science coverage vols. 1-7 - M.-L.: Gosizdat, 1924-1932; 2nd ed. - M.: Kraft, 1998
• Popovsky M. A. Time defeated: The Tale of Nikolai Morozov. - M.: Politizdat. Fiery revolutionaries, 1975. - 479 p., ill.
• Bronshten V. A. Defeat of the Society of World Science Lovers. Journal NATURE, 1990.- No. 10, pp. 122-126

Notes

Links

• Nikolay Morozov. Travel in outer space
• Nikolai Morozov On the border of the unknown. In world space. Scientific semi-fantasies. Moscow, 1910.
• S. I. Volfkovich, "Nikolai Morozov - scientist and revolutionary"
• Veniamin Kaverin Living history. N. A. Morozov. Through the eyes of the eighties
• M. Popovsky Mobzhdennoye vremya. The Tale of Nikolai Morozov. POLITIZDAT, 1975
• Monument to N. A. Morozov in the village. Borok, Nekouzsky district, Yaroslavl region Author G. Motovilov
• I.E. Repin Portrait of N. A. Morozov 1910
• Memorial house-museum of N. A. Morozov in the village. Borok, Nekouzsky district, Yaroslavl region. Contact information, main excursions.
• Digital archive of the honorary academician N. A. Morozov on the website of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
• N. A. Morozov. A new tool for the objective study of ancient documents.
• On one application of the statistical method A. A. Markov
• A. Rakovich Methodology of N. A. Morozov in the history of antiquity.
• The book of N. A. Morozov "Tales of my life." (

The book of one of the leaders of the party "Narodnaya Volya" Nikolai Alexandrovich Morozov (1854-1946) is part of the multi-volume study "Christ" (1924-1932), which proposed a revision of the main facts of world history. Morozov's work continues his well-known interpretations of the Bible: "Revelation in Thunderstorm and Storm" (1907) and "Prophets" (1914). The identification of astronomical evidence in Russian chronicles and their dating serves Morozov as the basis for rewriting Russian history. The methods used and the conclusions that Morozov comes to make it possible to attribute him to the predecessors of the "new chronology".

N. A. Morozov
A new look at the history of the Russian state

Published with the financial support of the director of LLC "Mirage-Stal" and "Katto-Neva"

Kulakov Andrey Anatolievich

Rep. ed. prof. A. F. Zamaleev

Historical nihilism N. A. Morozova

Oh, you deprived me of peace? Okay! Your world didn't exist!

Yu. K. Olesha

Of course, each of us is free to dispute the truth of ancient history, with one condition - to do without it. You can deny it; but you can't put anything in its place.

S. S. Uvarov

The first Russian historiographer, Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev, I remember, divided history into periods of "enlightenment of the mind": before the invention of writing, from the invention of writing to Jesus Christ, from Jesus Christ to the "acquisition of embossing books", and from the invention of book printing to the present. From the middle of the XV century. - the time of the Gutenberg discovery - the period of modernity begins, called modern. From the point of view of modernity, in a simplified way, all history can be divided into modernity and non-modernity, or into the history of the printed and preprinted periods. Modernity for modernity has a semantic priority in relation to other historical eras. Modernity owns scientifically substantiated truth, while other generations are mired in prejudices. The fundamental nature of Gutenberg's invention was duly appreciated by posterity. This even gave rise to a reconsideration of all historical science: if the truth belongs to the present, then the truth of history is the exclusive property of the era of printing and the exact sciences. Historiography and philosophy of history of the XX century. know several attempts to revise Russian history. Marxists rewrote it from class positions; a look at Russian history from the East was offered by the Eurasians; The "natural-scientific" revision of history is undertaken by the followers of the "new chronology". Among the predecessors of the latter was Nikolai Alexandrovich Morozov (1854-1946). Dictionary entries and numerous studies about Morozov paint the image of a steadfast revolutionary and consistent fighter against autocracy, a member of the "Chaikovites", "Earth and Freedom", a member of the executive committee of "Narodnaya Volya", one of the main theorists of terrorism, a participant in assassination attempts on Emperor Alexander II. At the same time, Morozov's revolutionary activity was constantly intertwined with scientific work. An unusually gifted man, encyclopedically erudite, who knew twelve languages, Morozov was an original scientist who left numerous studies in chemistry, physics, mathematics, astronomy, linguistics, and history. In terms of the versatility and diversity of the problems involved, perhaps only A. S. Khomyakov and A. A. Bogdanov are comparable with Morozov.

Morozov's life path, which stretched for almost a century, began and ended in the Borok estate of the Yaroslavl province. Morozov was the son of a landowner P. A. Shchepochkin and a serf peasant woman A. V. Morozova. Morozov's father came from the noble family of the Naryshkins and was related to Peter I himself. Marginality of origin, perhaps, determined the subsequent fate of Morozov. He chose the path of a revolutionary terrorist, and after the fall of the tsarist regime he came out with a refutation of traditional historiography. Morozov took part in "going to the people", lived in an illegal position, emigrated to Switzerland twice, was arrested three times, having spent a total of twenty-nine years in prison, of which he spent a quarter of a century in solitary confinement in the Peter and Paul and Shlisselburg fortresses. Having received a letter from S. Perovskaya in Switzerland, Morozov hurried to Russia to take part in the impending assassination attempt on Alexander II, but was captured at the border and already in the fortress learned about the death of the emperor. This preliminary arrest probably saved Morozov from the death penalty. Hard mental work helped Morozov survive in captivity. He taught languages, read all the non-fiction available in prison, and wrote constantly. According to Morozov’s wife, Ksenia Alekseevna: “When some confiscated student library was brought to Shlisselburg, which contained several hundred books of scientific content, as well as fiction in foreign languages, Morozov eagerly attacked reading and began to divide time between books, dreams and thoughts and memories. Creating his own world of thoughts and images, he surrounded himself with them, like an impregnable wall behind which the hopeless reality disappeared. Leaving prison, he took out twenty-six volumes of manuscripts (about fifteen thousand pages), containing about two hundred monographs on mathematics, chemistry, physics, history, which he began to publish in freedom. In 1906, at the suggestion of D. I. Mendeleev, for the essay "Periodic Systems of the Structure of Matter. The Theory of the Origin of Modern Chemical Elements," St. Petersburg University awarded Morozov an honorary doctorate in chemistry without defense. This gave him the opportunity to start research at the St. Petersburg Biological Laboratory of P.F. Lesgaft and begin teaching analytical chemistry at the Higher Free School of P.F. Lesgaft. In 1918, through the efforts of Morozov, the biological laboratory was transformed into the Scientific Institute. P.F. Lesgaft, whose director Morozov remained until the end of his life. In 1932 he was elected an honorary member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Efficiency, multiplied by longevity, gave abundant results. In total, Morozov owns about three thousand works, of which he managed to print only four hundred.

However, many years of solitary confinement, Morozov's marginal position in society and official science affected the manner and specificity of his research. First of all, this is the monologism of Morozov's thinking, caused by a lack of communication; the desire to do away with the old science in the same way that a revolutionary does away with the old regime; reaching fanaticism conviction in their rightness. This was manifested most noticeably in Morozov's historical studies. On the other hand, Morozov's natural-scientific rationalism paradoxically combined with anti-Christian pantheistic mysticism. It is difficult to say how much solitary confinement disposed to mysticism. Studying science allowed me to maintain clarity of mind and did not let me go crazy. But Morozov himself admitted that the consciousness that he was sitting in the Universe, and not in prison, helped him survive in solitary confinement. The theory and practice of mysticism knows numerous descriptions of such growth of the microcosm into the macrocosm. Archpriest Avvakum, for example, in prison not only saw an angel with cabbage soup, but his own body grew to the whole world. Some figures of the Bolshevik government also showed interest in mysticism and the occult (F. E. Dzerzhinsky, A. V. Lunacharsky, V. V. Bonch-Bruevich). Thanks to the support of Dzerzhinsky and Lunacharsky, Morozov's historical writings began to be published. Mystical and occult moods were also popular among the Russian intelligentsia at the beginning of the 20th century. Morozov's revelations of Christianity and the historiography associated with it were in tune with the search for a "new religious consciousness", the expectations of a new revelation, and the criticism of historical Christianity. Mystical motives were not alien to the representatives of Russian cosmism, for example, K. E. Tsiolkovsky. Morozov's new view of history echoes the views of Russian cosmists on the influence of extraterrestrial factors on historical events, although their points of view cannot be identified. Even a personal acquaintance with A. L. Chizhevsky did not lead to the correction of Morozov's concept. Developing the doctrine of the unity of the Universe, he came to the conclusion about the impact of space on geological and climatic phenomena on Earth. According to Morozov, life is the result of the evolution of the universe, the evolution of life is a continuation of the evolution of matter. The pinnacle of evolution is the human mind. This Renaissance anthropological point of view is also important for understanding the philosophical and historical system of Morozov. The mystical-occult meaning is also embedded in the title of Morozov's main historical work, the seven-volume study "Christ". "Christ," Morozov emphasized, means "initiate," "master of occult sciences," that is, a person who owns secret knowledge.

Morozov's historical concept and his refutation of traditional Christianity are closely linked. He came to a new view of history from the study of the Bible and theological literature. Initially, in the conclusion of the books, only the Holy Scriptures were available to him.

Source - Wikipedia

Nikolai Alexandrovich Morozov

Date of birth: June 25 (July 7), 1854
Place of birth: Borok estate, Mologa district, Yaroslavl province, Russian Empire
Date of death: July 30, 1946 (aged 92)
Place of death: Borok village, Nekouzsky district, Yaroslavl region, USSR

Nikolai Alexandrovich Morozov (1854-1946) - Russian populist revolutionary. Member of the circle of "Chaikovites", "Land and Freedom", the executive committee of "Narodnaya Volya". He was a participant in assassination attempts on Alexander II. In 1882 he was sentenced to eternal hard labor, until 1905 he was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul and Shlisselburg fortresses. Mason. Honorary Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Since 1918 - Director of Natural Science.
He left a large number of works in various fields of natural and social sciences. Also known as a writer, poet and author of historical works. He was awarded two Orders of Lenin (1944, 1945) and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1939).

Nikolai Alexandrovich Morozov was born in 1854 in the family estate of Borok, Yaroslavl Region. Father - Mologa landowner, nobleman Pyotr Alekseevich Shchepochkin (1832-1886). Mother - a Novgorod peasant woman, a former serf P. A. Shchepochkina Anna Vasilievna Morozova (1834-1919). All their joint children (two sons and five daughters) bore the mother's surname, and the patronymic - the godfather, the landowner Alexander Ivanovich Radozhitsky. Nikolai received mostly home education, but in 1869 he entered the 2nd Moscow Gymnasium, where, according to his own recollections, he studied poorly and was expelled. In 1871-1872 he was a volunteer at Moscow University.
In 1874 he joined the populist circle "Chaikovites", participated in "going to the people", conducted propaganda among the peasants of Moscow, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Voronezh and Kursk provinces. In the same year he went abroad, was a representative of the "Chaikovites" in Switzerland, collaborated in the newspaper "Worker" and the magazine "Forward", became a member of the International. Upon returning to Russia in 1875, he was arrested. In 1878 he was convicted in the process of the 193rd and, taking into account the preliminary conclusion, was released at the end of the trial. He continued his revolutionary activities, conducted propaganda in the Saratov province, in order to avoid arrest he went into hiding.

Shlisselburg fortress. New prison.
He became one of the leaders of the organization "Land and Freedom", was the secretary of the editorial office of the newspaper "Land and Freedom". In 1879 he took part in the creation of the "Narodnaya Volya", joined its Executive Committee.
Participated in the preparation of assassination attempts on Alexander II, was a member of the editorial board of the newspaper "Narodnaya Volya". In January 1880, due to theoretical differences with the majority of the leadership of Narodnaya Volya, he withdrew from practical work and, together with his common-law wife, Olga Lyubatovich, went abroad, where he published the brochure The Terrorist Struggle, outlining his views. If the program of "Narodnaya Volya" considered terror as an exceptional method of struggle and further provided for the rejection of it, then Morozov proposed using terror constantly as a regulator of political life in Russia. The theory developed by Morozov was called "tellism" (from Wilhelm Tell). In December 1880, Morozov met Karl Marx in London, who gave him several works for translation into Russian, including the Communist Manifesto.
On January 28, 1881, even before the assassination of Emperor Alexander II by Narodnaya Volya, Morozov was arrested at the border while illegally returning to Russia. In 1882, in the process of 20, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Until 1884, he was kept in the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress, and since 1884 - in cells: 2, 13, 15, 28, 29, 33 and 37 of the Shlisselburg Fortress. In the Shlisselburg convict prison, he wrote 26 volumes of various manuscripts, which he managed to save and take out when he was released from prison in 1905.
In November 1905, during the revolutionary events, under an amnesty of October 28, 1905, N.A. Morozov was released after 25 years in prison. During his imprisonment, he learned eleven languages, wrote many scientific papers in chemistry, physics, mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, aviation, political economy, and, fully devoting himself to science, began to prepare his works for publication. He was arrested in 1911, spent almost the entire year in prison. The last time he was arrested in 1912 in the Crimea and imprisoned in the Dvina fortress, he was released in early 1913 under an amnesty in honor of the 300th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty. As a result, with interruptions, he spent about 30 years in prison.
At the beginning of 1907, in the church of the village of Kopan near Bork, Nikolai Alexandrovich married Ksenia Alekseevna Borislavskaya (1880-1948), a famous pianist, writer and translator. They lived a long life together, but they had no children.
In 1908 he joined the Masonic lodge "Polar Star".
On January 31, 1909, N. A. Morozov was invited by S. V. Muratov on behalf of the Council of the Russian Society of Lovers of the World Studies (ROLM) to the post of Chairman of the Council and remained its only chairman until its closure in 1932. The members of the Council were then repressed and some of them were amnestied only half a century later. Morozov, despite his critical position, was only forced to leave for his Borok estate, where he continued his scientific work, including in the astronomical observatory built for him by the Society.
In 1939, on his initiative, a scientific center was established in Bork; now the Borok Geophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences also works there.
In 1939, at the age of 85, Morozov graduated from the Osoaviakhim sniper course and three years later, on the Volkhov front, he personally participated in hostilities. In July 1944 he was awarded the Order of Lenin.
He was buried in Borka Park on one of the lawns. In the year of the 100th anniversary of his birth, a bronze monument was erected on the grave, made by the sculptor G. Motovilov.

Political views. Morozov and the revolution
Morozov did not share Bolshevik views. For him, socialism was the ideal of social organization, but this ideal was perceived by him as a distant goal, the achievement of which is connected with the worldwide development of science, technology and education. He considered capitalism to be the driving force of the latter. He defended the position that a gradual, well-prepared nationalization of industry was needed, and not its forcible expropriation. In his articles he argued the failure of the socialist revolution in peasant Russia. On the question of the socialist revolution, he opposed Lenin. Here his position was closer to Plekhanov's. Morozov participated in the elections to the Constituent Assembly on the lists of the Cadet Party, being in the same ranks with V. I. Vernadsky. On August 12, 1917, at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, on the initiative of the head of the Provisional Government A.F. Kerensky, a State Conference was held, to which the leaders of the revolutionary movement were involved: Prince P.A. Lopatin, G. V. Plekhanov, and N. A. Morozov. In a speech at this meeting, Morozov argued that the proletariat could not live without the bourgeoisie at the present time.
On the eve of the October Revolution, N. A. Morozov took a conciliatory position, having joined the party of the Cadets, he was offered the post of Deputy Minister of Education, which he refused. N. A. Morozov was respected by all revolutionary parties as one of the few living members of the People's Will.

Performance evaluation

Memory
In honor of Morozov, a minor planet (1210) Morozovia and a crater on the Moon are named.
In the Leningrad region there is a village named after Morozov.
Streets in Vladivostok and Ramenskoye are named after Nikolai Morozov.
Shlisselburg gunpowder factories were renamed in 1922 into the “Plant im. Morozov.
In Bork (Yaroslavl region) there is a house-museum of Morozov.

Bibliography

Morozov N. A. Tales of my life: Memoirs / Ed. and note. S. Ya. Shtreikh. Afterword B. I. Kozmina. T. 2. - M.: b. i., 1961. - 702 p.: p.
Morozov N. A. Christ. The history of mankind in natural science coverage vols. 1-7 - M.-L.: Gosizdat, 1924-1932; 2nd ed. - M.: Kraft+, 1998

Literature

Avrekh A. Ya. Freemasons and revolution. - M.: Politizdat, 1990. - S. 51. - 350 p. - ISBN 5-250-00806-2
Popovsky M.A. The defeated time: The Tale of Nikolai Morozov. - M.: Politizdat. Fiery revolutionaries, 1975. - 479 p., ill.
Bronshten V. A. Defeat of the Society of Lovers of World Studies. Journal "Nature", 1990. No. 10, pp. 122-126.
Zakharova T. G. Borok is the birthplace of N. A. Morozov // Moscow Journal. - 2005. - No. 9. - S. 7-8.